Thursday, March 11, 2010

There is no force powerful enoughto stem the tide of an idea whose time has come.We can no longer, in good conscience or in good health,continue to use animals for food.

The vegan concept is not a fad that will pass with time.It is a necessary shift in thinking, that will lead toa heightened empathy and concern for others.It is the expansion of compassion, which is the single mostimportant step in the next evolution of humankind.

When we consider the wolf and the elephant,the shark and the ox, the weasel and the deer,we find that it is not the size or strength of animals,but how they obtain their food, that determineswhether their nature is violent or gentle.

We humans are also animals.Therefore, it is how our food is obtainedthat determines our own nature: violent or gentle.A gentle human nature is essential if we are to evolve;and we must evolve, if we are to survive.

I have been researching the use of palm by companies that claim to be "cruelty-free" or "earth-friendly".

The brutal slaughter of orangutans and other wildlife and the massive burning of rainforests is neither earth or animal-friendly.

As I was researching the 'AgroPalma Group' and their direct relation to the corrupt 'RSPO' (Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil), I came across this website that I think may be of great help to saving orangutans and their rainforest home.

The Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326) has just been reintroduced in Congress. This legislation would end invasive research on the chimpanzees remaining in laboratories, release federally owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuaries, and end federal funding for the breeding of federally owned chimpanzees.

Please take a moment to help the more than 1,000 chimpanzees forced to live in laboratory research settings in the United States.

As a result of their use in experiments, chimpanzees can experience early separation from their mothers, social isolation, prolonged captivity, sensory deprivation, and repeated physical harm.

"People may be shocked to learn that laboratories in the United States are permitted to keep chimpanzees in cages about the size of a kitchen table, sometimes for decades," says PCRM primatologist Debra Durham, Ph.D. “It’s time for us to join the growing list of countries that ban invasive experiments on these amazing animals.”

Lonesome George

Every now and then George closes his eyes for a few centuries the stars stop for the occasion and the sun goes out, his night lit only by dream...

"Hello, big boy," she says, shell new and lustrous, green as the deep sea; and her eyes deep as the dark gems that glow deep where it roots...

George, lifting his nose skyward still seeing her behind his closed eyes moves forwardslow as lava oozing from the bottom of the sea

His scaled feet arch like trees first planted then pulled up from their roots...

"I'm coming," he says.

Written by, Steve Campbell

"Lonesome George" is the name given by biologists to the last surviving male Giant Galapagos Tortoise. There are no surviving females.

The entire Giant Galapagos Tortoise species was destroyed directly by humans. The tortoise's shells were used to make tourist trinkets. The shell is part of the tortoise's body (like turtles). Without their shell, they die much like a human having their skin removed (I imagine, equally as painful).

The animal was usually still alive when it's 'soft' body was cruelly cut out from it's shell. In countries like China, and the Island of Bali, this brutal and unethical practice of live tortoise/turtle slaughter continues.

George is approximately 90 years old. In 2008, great efforts were made to help George produce offspring by fertilizing eggs of a 'close' relative species. Sadly, the experiment failed.

George is the rarest known creature in the world and... the loneliest.